The Transformation of Making, Storing, and Keeping Energy Reliable

The U.S. built the very first power grid in the world. Now, it’s old, and showing its age. With that comes challenges for builders.

The electrical grid of the future faces challenges that present both opportunities and roadblocks. First, since most US infrastructure is currently tied to a massive, expensive, interconnected grid, any redirection of the flow will be slow, and not easily rationalized for efficiency's sake. Letting go of current systems means creating new ones, and creating new ones not only takes time, but means starting at a scale so small that it would not be realistic for today’s energy needs. 

So how do we get there? Shifting to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels, needs a new infrastructure, plus putting it in place and getting cultural buy-in, immediately puts physical along with intangible roadblocks in place. 

However, with climate disasters taking lives, destroying homes, buildings, towns and economies, more stakeholders are understanding the consequences of not taking action. As the building community needs to respond to this dynamic state, it’s valuable to reflect on the change from the last two decades, along with looking at the opportunity ahead. 

Smart Home Evolution: The Slow and the Fast of It

“Since the 1980s, energy efficiency has been one of the key drivers of home automation, which is what it was called back then,” said Elizabeth Parks, president and CMO at research group Parks Associates. “It was a systems play where the major players were developing main control systems with HVAC, and the thermostats and controls back then weren’t connected to an app, but had controls on them.”

Moving into the 1990s, the utilities entered the discussion, uniquely in some markets like Texas where the market was deregulated so consumers had the option and choice of their utility provider. After that, the consumer had control in selecting a utility, so the utilities started developing programs to capture consumers. 

“All the other devices have been a slow evolution,” Parks said. “There isn’t and hasn’t been breakthrough technology. If you look back five years, purchase rates were low and there was high adoption, but now there aren't a lot of replacements or updates. There aren’t a lot of people buying smart thermostats, which creates a slow and steady build.”  

On the systems side with home controls, it continues to be slow. The utilities and the companies building new systems still are dependent on an aging infrastructure. 

“We think that microgrids and virtual power plants will play into consumer activity by individual homes connected with energy storage,” she added. “In some places, they are already doing it. For example, Southern Company is working on the orchestration of the grid, and it trickles into the individual household with the connected devices. It’s the bridge to make the grid work in a new way.” 

A “Virtual” New Reality?

Getting the grid to work in a new way is at the heart of our energy transition. 

“It’s the system that we are trying to impact for energy transition to happen and to make a renewable system really work, which is very challenging for many reasons,” said Blake Richetta, chairman and CEO at solar company Sonnen. “Another challenge is that renewable energy is erratic. What we do as a society needs to create a sustainable path that doesn’t create new costs, new subsidies, interests and rates. This is my passion; it’s why the virtual power plant and batteries are so important.”

He has been focused on making the infrastructure for a new energy system that harmonizes renewable energy at the home level and community level, which requires an infrastructure reliant on batteries. He’s using that system to create virtual power plants (VPPs) across the country. 

With record growth in states like Texas and Utah, the company is allowing consumers to consider solar and battery and smart load controls to save money and even receive cash for the value that their excess energy brings to the grid. 

This system also takes the load off utility substations and decreases the need to use peaking power plants. While there are advances, there are both political and capital challenges. 

“In Florida, you still have almost no way to do anything with Florida Power and Light and that market is not interested in progressing at all,” Richetta said. “In a deregulated market like Texas, we can chase our European friends and get as many dynamic services going as possible. In the Texas market, we can do more there than anywhere else. We continue to launch VPPs in more ways.”

Smarter, More Intuitive Resilience

While all the system work is happening and the infrastructure is bending, learning and growing, personal home technologies are responding. Not only are they being developed to make current homes smarter, they also are being developed to make homes more resilient to system failures. 

Power outages are happening more often, lasting longer, and leaving homeowners vulnerable. 

“The power grid is 100 years old,” said Cole Ashman, founder and CEO at Pila Energy. “It is the largest machine on earth that is completely interconnected. All of the power lines, the infrastructure are very old. In California, the old power lines are falling over, just true collapse. As an innovative country, and the most to gain from innovation, we need to work together to balance the grid with EV charging and batteries.”

His company recently introduced the Pila Mesh Home Battery, the first plug-in, modular in-home battery that delivers intelligent, automatic backup power for essential appliances during outages. The battery is unique in that it can be used in any environment, becoming one of the only solutions suitable for a multi-tenant building. 

The technology can connect multiple batteries throughout the home, coordinating them to store solar or utility power and optimize stored energy for outage protection and cost savings. The battery also has an app that provides information on home energy use, 24/7 monitoring of critical appliances like the fridge, and power outage alerts from anywhere. 

Pila is focused on being able to bring energy backup to 100% of homes, not just to single family, high income homes. Battery systems like Pila provide intelligence at a home-level, and also at the grid level, with the future to empower every home to be independent, and at the same time, to stabilize the aging grid. 

Production builders also are leaning into providing resilient home energy solutions. Lennar recently launched a collaboration with Base Power to install batteries in new homes across Texas. Lennar chose the Texas market because the state’s independent grid had more weather-related outages than any other state, adding up to 210 from 2000 to 2023. 

This market and others are part of a swift evolution for resiliency innovations. 

“Texas is a big market of energy providers, and none do anything with batteries or technology,” explained Zach Dell, the co-founder and CEO at Base Power. “Back up is increasingly important in Texas. It is a canary in the coalmine as the grid continues to age.” 

Base Power installs batteries for a home, plus owns and operates the batteries. When a Lennar home comes with the Base battery installed, the cost is incorporated with the cost of the home, and the owner gets the benefit of resilient energy. 

The 20-kWh wall mounted battery can back up the entire home. It is charged off the grid, discharges when demand is high, pulls when demand is low, and allows for income shares with the homeowner in the form of lower electricity prices. 

Will Necessary Skilled Labor Materialize?

Making the energy transition work will take collaboration across multiple industry sectors, along with a skilled labor force. A big wild card is whether they can meet any impending demand, particularly given anti-immigrant fervor. One encouraging sign is that US trade school enrollments have risen over the last couple years. According to Bestcolleges.com:

“Parsing data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the company determined that trade school enrollments grew 4.9% from 2020 to 2023. During that same span, the report notes, traditional higher education enrollments dropped by 0.6%.”

New research from construction company EPD, reported on the forecasted growth for skilled workers in the next six years, showing a 48% increase in need for solar PV installers, and an opening for 85,000 electricians. 

Green Builder Media frequently takes the pulse of builders and homebuyers through its Cognition Smart Data platform. They’ve found that with technology evolving at its current speed, many homebuyers fear that what goes in their homes will be outdated in a short amount of time. Recent survey results show that nearly 75% of respondents are mildly or very concerned that what they install will be obsolete within a couple years. 

Getting to off-grid housing could solve many of today’s micro scale energy challenges. But most Green Builder Media survey respondents believe that it will be more than 10 years before we realize off-grid housing in most markets – separating homeowners from the unreliable aspects of the grid in more than a decade. 

Slow and Steady May Prevail

There are other silver linings to consider and opportunities to leverage. 

“Lots of good things will be happening in the future,” Parks said. “It’s a slow and steady market, but it will grow through the services side. Home services will help connect with service providers and mean different ecosystem players come together in different ways in partnerships to play off of one another in the name of energy efficiency.”

Parks Associates is currently working on research on energy specific services that will be growing in the future and already sees that HVAC tune up service is growing by 11%, where 12M households will pay an annual fee to check systems. 

“There are growing opportunities for different channels,” she continued. “Energy safety and security are key drivers for this growth, like HVAC and AI software. The big problem will be the data centers. It’s so big that there will be a focus on that and how to reduce energy use there to create more in other places.”

Publisher’s Note: Green Builder's 20th Anniversary celebration is sponsored by: Carrier and Trex.